Drier for fiber board



' Oct. 25, 1932. F. s. FARLEY DRIER FOR FIBER BOARD Filed Aug. 29, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR Francis SC Farley,

BY M A 0R EYS Oct. 25, 1932. F. s. FARLEY DRIER FOR FIBER BOARD Filed Aug. 29, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Frauen Si Farley,

ATT

Oct. 25, 1932. i s, FARLEY 1,883,887

DRIER FOR FIBER BOARD Filed Aug. 29, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIGETZ ZZZ WITNESSES INVENTOR Patented Oct. 25,1932

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FRANCIS s. Emmy, or 'rnnN'roN, Nnw msnx, ASSIGNOR 'ro DANIEL nrANsoN SUTBEBLAND, amen nonnIsvILLn, PENNSYLVANIA mums. non FIBER noun Application filed A nts, 1929. Serial No. 389,175.

The present invention relates to driers for- 'fiber board and the like.

Such driers are used for compacting sheets of wet fiber, by

heat and pressure, into more or less dense, coherent board. My invention affords var1- ous practical advantages, such as large capacity of the drier, thorough and eflicient removal of water, convenient, rapid and economical operation.

How these and other advantagescan be realized through my invention will appear from'my description hereinafter-of selectedand preferred embodiments.

In the drawings, Fig. I is a side elevation inventlon.

- of anapparatus conveniently embodying my Fig. II is a similar view at right angles to chains corresponding to Fig. V, but with the anism shown in Fig. VIII.

drier plates closed against one another.

. Fig. VII is a fragmentary side view of mechanism for separating the drier plates, with certain parts in vertical midsection.

Fig. VIII is a similar view of certainparts in Fig. VII, showing some of them in a different position. a

Fig. IX is a plan view of partpf the mech- The drier shown in Figs. I prises astack of plates 11 between which the sheets of wet fiber S are compacted and dried, sheets and plates in alternation. Thus a great many sheets can be dried concurrently. The wet, rawsheets may be introduced into thestack one by one, as they are 'manufactured instead of in batches, a driedor cured sheet being discharged when a raw sheet is introduced to take its place. Thus drying goes on continuously, notwithstand-- ing the continual discharging and recharging; and there is no period during which all plates remain closed and the activity of the I and II comsheet-producing machinery must be suspended (or its product accumulated or diverted to another drier) ,-or, at any rate, this period is reduced to a minimum As shown in Figs. I and II, the plates 11 are provided with spacing means 21 in the form of projections at their upper sides,

which determines the thickness to which raw sheets S are compressed in the drier.

The plates 11 are flexibly interconnected and suspended by chains of links 22 pivoted to lugs 23 on the edges of the plates. As shown in Figs. I and II, there are two pairs of these chains 22, attached at their upper ends to lugs 24 on a frame-work of I-beams 25 at the top of the machine. Each of chains 22 is flexible between successive plates 11 connected by it, so as to allow them to apt proach one another by flexure ofthe chain.

In the present instance (see Fig. IV), the two chains 22 of each pair are connected to alternate plates 11 only: i. e., one chain to the first, third, and fifth plates, etc., and the other chain to the second, fourth, and sixth plates,

etc. This allows the chains to. be made with 7 longer single links.

The chains 22 resemble sprocket chains in construction, each of them comprisingtwo sets of overlapping flat links 26, 27 interconthe nected by pivots 28. Alternate pivots 28 extend through the lugs 23 and the other pivots 28 are provided with spacing means 29. Square stop bars 30 extend between corresponding outside links 27 at their middle, to

engage shoulders 31 (see Fig. V) on the lower ends of the inside links 26. Thus the interconnected links 26, 27 can never straighten out completely to a dead center, and can only flex outward from the plates 11: i. e., they can never come between the plates 11 and block I the plates from coming together properly.

When the plates 11 are closed together, the I stop bars 30 are accommodated in notches 32 in, the edges of the links 26, as shown in Fig. VI.

- When the chains 22 hang free, as at U in the upper part of Figs. I and II, the plates 11 are separated further than the thickness of a wet, raw sheet S, thus permitting the inter- Spaces to be charged and the sheets that have been dried to be discharged. As the plate I interspaces are charged, however, the corresponding plates 11 are brought together upon the wet sheets S, to compress, heat, and dry them. As here shown, this is done by successively lowering the p'lates 11 on a bottom sup port or cradle-33, in a pile L. This is done by lowering the chain-supporting overhead structure 25, which rests onthe heads ofplungers 35 that work in vertical hydraulic cylinders 36 fixed to the machine base 37 ,water being concurrently admitted to the cylinders 36 or exhausted from them through common pipe connections '38. To assure coincident movement of the plungers 35 and thus prevent the frame from cocking, interconnected gears 39 are provided at the corners of the frame, meshing with racks on uprights 4O fixed to the base 37. The gears 39 at each side of the frame are mounted on a common shaft 41, andthe two shafts 41 are intercom nected by transverse shafts 42 and sets of bevel gears 43.

It is of advantage to introduce the wet 4 sheets S, and to discharge the dried or cured water being concurrently admitted to the T cylinders 46 or exhausted from them through common pipe connections 48. Each time the overhead support 25 is lowered to transfer a plate 11 from the upper suspended group U to the lower piled up group L, the bottom support 33 is also lowered a distance equal to the thickness of a plate 11, including its spacing means 21. Thus the top plate 11 of the lower group L is always at substantially a constantcharging or loading level,-i. e., the level shown in Figs. I and II,and the stack of plates asa whole is lowered as'its plate intervals are charged and closed.

To facilitate the charging of the drier plate stack, provision may be made for augmenting the plate interval at the charging or loading level, so as to afford more space. As shown in Figs. I and II, this is done by lifting the lowermost plate 11a of the upper group U toward or against-the plate 11?) next above it,a n operation permitted by the fact that each chain 22 is'connected to alternate plates 11 only. As shown, the lifting means (Figs. I-III and VII-IX) is provided in duplicate at the two ends of the machine, so as to lift the plates 11 evenly. At each side, there are two lifting arms 50, 5O fixed to a shaft 51 mounted in bearing brackets 52 on a supporting structure 53 attached to the up rights 40, and each plate 11 has a correspon ing' pair of lifting lugs 55 on its edge. A I

crank arm 56 is fixed on the shaft 51, and connected by double links or pitmen 57 to the cross-head 58 of a hydraulic motor 60.

As shown in Fig. VII, the motor-60 comprises upper and lower hydraulic cylinders 62, 63, inter-connected by guide rods 64 which extend through guide openings in the crosshead 58, to which are attached a small plunger -65 for the lower cylinder 63 and a lar e plunger 66 for the upper clinder 62. s shown, the upper cylinder 62 is attached to the supporting structure 53, and the lower cylinder 63 to another supporting structure 67 attached to the uprights 40. The lower cylinder 63 is constantly supplied with water under pressure by a pipe connection 68, while water under pressure is admitted to the upper cylinder 62, or exhausted therefrom, through apipeconnection 69 with a control valve 70. Thus the cross-head 58 is kept raised, and the arms 50, 5O depressed (as shown in full lines in Fig. VII) except when pressure is admitted to the (larger) upper cylinder 62 to lower the cross-head and'raise the arms 50, 50.

Preferably, the arms 50, 50 do not directly engage the plate lugs 55, 55, but are each provided with a latch finger 71 for this purpose, pivoted on the arm at 72 and yieldingly held in the outstanding, active position of Fig. VII by a helical spring 73 connected to the latch and to the bearing bracket 52,-this active position of the latch being determined by a i stop shoulder 74 on the latch and a corresponding stoplug 75 on the arm. The latch 71 acts as part of the arm 50 to raise the plates 11, but yields as shown in Fig. VII to allow a plate lug 55 to pass the arm if the plates 11 bell-crank levers 77, 77 are interconnected by 73 a link rod or pitman 79.

The wet sheets S may be introduced by a reciprocating loader 82, and dried sheets S pushed out by this loader 82 to make way for y the wet sheets.- The loader 82 may be of any suitable construction, such as that described in a pending application, Serial No. 307,839, filed September 24, 1928, by Daniel Manson Sutherland,- J r., assignee of this application.

.F or present purposes, it may be sufliciently described as comprising a carriage 83 with wheels or rollers 84 travelling to and fro on I stationary rails 85, and provided with a travelling apron 86 formed by the top run of anendless belt guided, driven, and supported by rolls 87 and also a sloping supplemental apron belt 88 in front of the main belt, guided and driven by rolls 89. This sloping belt 88 always travels with the main belt 86 at the same surface speed, and serves to support the wet sheet S in its transition from the main belt 86 to the plates 11.

To introduce a sheet S on the loader 82 into the stack, the loader 82 moves to the right (Fig. 1) until the sheet S isin substantially its intended position relative to the plate 11 beneath it, the aprons 86, 88 remain ng stationary relative to the carriage. During this movement, the loader engages the edge of a previously dried sheet S resting on'the plate 11, and pushes this. sheet out to the right, on

to the discharge rolls 90. The loader 82 .then

returns back to the left clear of the stack,

while its aprons 86, 88 travel to the right relative to the carriage 83 at a linear speed just panded, and the lowermost plate 11 resting on the cradle 33 with its top surface just below the loader 82. The plate 11 next the bottom is raised against that just above it,

' hanging free).

by the devices 50, 50 thus augmenting the normal interval between the plates, and the loader 82 enters and deposits a wet sheet S on the bottom plate, and withdraws. The devices 50, 50 are lowered, releasing the plate 11 that has been resting onthem; theac'radle 33 is lowereda distance equal to the thickness of a plate (including the spacing means 21) and the supporting structure 25 is lowered a distance equal to the thickness of a plate plus the normalinterval between the plates (when Accordingly, the plate-11 next above the bottom is transferred from the upper suspended groupU to the lower stacked group L and the lowermost plate interval is closed on the sheet S,-thus squeezing and compressing the sheet S as much as permitted by the spacing means 21.

5 stack is recharged, the dried sheets a may be This cycle of operations isrepeated over and over again until all the plate intervals have been charged and closed.

The fully charged stack of plates 11 is allowed to remain closed until all the sheets S in it have had time to dry or cure properly, and is then opened up or expanded completely by raising the structure 25. Thereupon all the dried sheets a may be expelled or withdrawn in any suitable manner. leaving the stack empty and ready for recharging.

Or, instead of being thus expelled before the pushed out one by one by the loader 82 as it enters the plate intervals with wet sheets S for the next charging of the apparatus, always, of course, at the one constant chargin level,'as already mentioned above.

' aving thus described my invention, I claim: Y

1. An apparatus of the character described comprising a multiplicity of plates suspended at an interval one above another, means for introducing raw sheets into-the spaces between adjacent plates, means for lifting against one another the plates whose intervals have been thus charged, and means for raising and lowering the suspended plates above the charged pile of plates. V 2. An apparatus of the character described comprising a multiplicity of interconnected plates suspended at an interval one above another, means for lifting the plates from beneath into a pile, means for lifting the plate just above the pile toward the plate above it,

so as to increase the space between the plate thus lifted andthetop of the pile, and means for introducing a raw sheet into the thus augmented space.

3. An apparatus of the character described comprising a stack or series'of plates with means for suspending them at an interval one above another, means for advancing raw sheets to the stack at substantially a constant loading level, means for supporting the plates below the loading level piled on one another, and for raising and lowering the pile, and means for raising and lowering the suspended plates above the pile.

4. An apparatus of the character described comprising a stack or series of plates with means for suspending them at an interval one above another, means for advancing raw sheets to the stack at substantially a constant loading level, means for supporting the plates below the loadinglevel piled on one another, and for raising and lowering the pile, means for raising and lowering the suspended plates above the pile, and means for lifting the plate above the pile toward that i above it, so as to increase the at the loading level.

5. An apparatus of the character described comprising an overhead-structure and a multiplicity of interconnected platesvsuspended therefrom at an interval one above another, means for raising and lowering said overheadstructure and the plates hanging therefrom. a cradle for lifting and supporting the plates in a pile and means for raising and lowering said cradle, and means for introducing a raw sheet into the space between the top of the pile and the plate hanging above it. 6. An apparatus of the character described comprising an overhead structure and a multiplicity of interconnected plates suspended therefrom at 'an interval one above another.

plate interval means for raising and lowering said overhead structure and the plates hanging therefrom, a cradle for lifting and supporting the plates in a pile and means for raising and lowering said cradle, means for lifting the plate hanging just above the pile toward the plate above it, so as to increase the space between the plate thus lifted and the top'of the pile, and means for introducing a raw sheet into the thus augmented space. 7. An apparatus of the character described comprising a stack or multiplicity of plates alternately interconnected and thereby suspended at an interval one above another in independent series, means for temporarily lifting each plate toward that above it and thus increasing its distance above that beneath it, and means for introducing a raw sheet into the thus augmented space.

8. An apparatus of the character described comprising a stack of multiplicity of plates alternately interconnected and thereby suspended at an interval one above another in independent series, means for advancing raw sheets to the stack at substantially a constant loading level, means for supporting the plates below the loading level piled on one another,

and for raising and lowering the pile, means for raising and lowering the suspended plates above the pile, and means for lifting the plate above the pile toward that above it, so as to increase the plate interval at the loading level.

9.- An apparatus of the character described comprising a stack or multiplicity of plates alternately interconnected and thereby 'suspended at an interval-one above another in independent series.

10. An apparatus of the character described comprising a stacker multiplicity of plates, and chains for supporting the plates at an interval one above anotherin independent series, the plates being attached in alterv nation to different sets of chains.

11. An apparatus of the character described comprising a stack or multiplicity of plates, folding links interconnecting alternate plates and thereby suspending the plates at an interval one above another in independent series, means vfor lifting the plates from beneath into a pile, and means for preventing the links from flexing inward between the plates. v A

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name at Trenton, New Jersey, this 26th day of August, 1929.

' FRANCIS S. FARLEY. 

